DV shorts rebuild as options traders turn bullish into May earnings

DoubleVerify Holdings is walking into its May 21 Q1 results with a split personality in positioning: short sellers adding exposure at the fastest pace in months, while options traders have swung to their most bullish stance of the past year.

Short interest has climbed sharply. At 6.6% of free float — and closer to 8.2% on ORTEX's latest combined estimate — the position has grown roughly 7% in a single week and 15% over the past month, mirroring the stock's own price gains almost point for point. The rate of rebuilding accelerated visibly after April 23, when shares jumped from below 8.8 million short to above 9.9 million in a single session. The ORTEX short score has edged up accordingly, moving from around 42 at end-April to 46.5 this week, though it remains in the lower half of the universe — this is rebuilding shorts, not a crowded trade. Importantly, the borrow market is effectively wide open: availability runs at roughly 2,200% of short interest, and cost to borrow has barely moved, holding near 0.55% APR. There is no squeeze pressure here. New short positions can be established at near-zero cost.

The options market is telling a completely different story. The put/call ratio crashed to 0.20 on May 5 — nearly three standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.40, and matching the 52-week low set on April 30. That is an extreme lean toward calls. It follows weeks of stable, unexciting options flow in the 0.41–0.43 range; the shift this week is abrupt. The implication is that a material cohort of options traders is positioning for further upside heading into the May 21 print — making the divergence with the short-side rebuild unusually sharp.

The Street is broadly cautious but not outright negative, and recent analyst data is on the older side. The most recent changes on record — from early March — show Wells Fargo nudging its target from $8 to $9 while holding Underweight, and Canaccord cutting from $18 to $16 following the February earnings print. RBC trimmed to $14 from $17. With the stock now at $11.46, the mean target of around $12.86 implies modest upside, and analyst return potential registers at roughly 12% per the screening data. The RSI at 71 confirms the stock is technically extended after a 15% gain over the past month. Bulls point to strong CTV expansion, AI measurement products, and minimal churn among top clients. Bears flag decelerating growth, pricing pressure from the shift toward international markets, and a still-unproven Pre-Bid Social ramp. The EPS forward momentum score is notably strong — ranked in the 99th percentile for year-on-year forward estimate growth — which may partly explain the call-buying surge this week.

The February earnings print offers the only relevant reaction data in the set: the stock gained just under 10% on the day, and nearly 16% in the five days following. That was an outperform relative to the pattern seen across much of the ad-tech space. Institutional ownership is stable: BlackRock holds 12.1% as the largest passive anchor, Vanguard added 360,000 shares as of March 31, and Topline Capital Management — a smaller active fund — initiated a position of 8.5 million shares, equivalent to 5.4% of shares outstanding, as of February. That is a material new position from an active manager and represents one of the larger recent ownership changes in the cap table.

The setup into May 21 is therefore a genuine tug-of-war: call buyers are aggressive, a new active holder has made a sizeable bet, and forward EPS estimates have been revised sharply higher — while short sellers are quietly rebuilding at a pace that tracks the rally. What resolves the tension is whether Q1 revenue growth and any forward guidance can justify a stock that has already repriced 15% in a month.